Solarflare Demos Line-Rate Virtualization and Storage Convergence

Solarflare Communications, Inc., provider of standards-compliant 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10GbE) silicon, demonstrates its line-rate, low-power (2 watt) vNIC controller and its 100-meter reach, low-power (5 watt) PHY technology across VMware ESX server and iSCSI storage appliances in a 10GBASE-T network at VMworld.

Built to deliver optimal virtualization performance at 10 Gigabits per second, the demos feature Solarflare PHY and controller technology integrated into currently-shipping SMC Networks NIC and switch products. The demonstrations will simultaneously run VMware ESX VMotion, ESX iSCSI Initiator Traffic and ESX Application networking traffic with Netqueue over a copper 10GBASE-T Ethernet network.

"The benefit of utilizing 10GBASE-T running over an existing copper Ethernet cabling infrastructure and carrying multiple forms of traffic simultaneously is big in terms of cost savings," said Bruce Tolley, vice president of marketing at Solarflare. "Enterprises and data centers have seen an incredible uptake in the use of virtualization and storage convergence technologies. Solarflare’s 10GBASE-T PHY and 10GbE controller technology play an essential role in enabling customers to build converged LAN SAN networks with standards-compliant solutions that both maximize network performance and maintain power efficiency without requiring a network overhaul."

"SMC continues to break ground with its family of 10G networking solutions, giving particular attention to our 10GBASE-T products which utilize Solarflare’s 10G Ethernet PHYs," said Keith Alexis, vice president of sales for SMC Networks. "Central to our overall strategy, this product category includes the addition of SMC’s new 20port 10GBASE-T Switch (SMC8724-10BT) to the existing 10GBASE-T NICs, and the upcoming 10GBASE-T uplink modules for our stackable 1G and 10G switches (SMC88xx-series). SMC will provide the only completely standards-based 10GBASE-T family of solutions capable of running the full 100 meters and we look forward to becoming the preferred vendor for companies deploying bandwidth-intensive applications requiring high-performance and reliability."

About Solarflare 10 Gigabit Products
Solarflare designs and develops the highest-performing, lowest-power, standards-compliant 10GbE controllers and 10GBASE-T transceivers on the market. Optimized for all key virtualization platforms including Citrix XenEnterprise, Microsoft’s Hyper-V, and VMware’s ESX server, Solarflare’s Solarstorm Ethernet controller consumes less than 2.0 watts at full line-rate performance delivering the optimal balance in performance and power efficiency. Solarflare’s 10Xpress 10GBASE-T PHY supports distances of greater than 100 meters on UTP Category 6A cabling, 100 meters on STP Category 6,55 meters on UTP Category 6, and 45 meters on UTP Category 5E cabling. When combined on a server adapter, Solarflare’s 10Xpress 10GBASE-T PHY and Solarstorm 10GbE controller deliver 10 times the performance of a 1 Gigabit NIC at half the power consumption of previous 10GbE server adapters.